HGB Ep. 565 - Haunted Cedar Key and the Island Hotel

Moment in Oddity - Frog Milk (Suggested by: ?)

Throughout history, many methods of food and drink preservation have been discovered. Prior to the invention of modern refrigerators, preserving things like milk proved to be challenging. However, centuries before modern refrigeration, the people of Russia and Finland discovered a strange method for keeping milk fresh and free from bacteria. It just so happens that the body secretions of their common frogs have many antibacterial properties. Although the idea of preserving milk with frogs was considered folklore, scientists in Moscow announced this discovery back in 2012. Apparently, Russian brown frog's skin secretes peptides that have antimicrobial compounds that help reduce the growth of fungi and bacteria. The scientists even discovered that the slime of these amphibians can even be as effective as certain pharmaceuticals against bacteria like salmonella and staphylococcus. Now, we don't recommend grabbing some random frog and popping it into your milk to help it last longer. Nor do we recommend licking one because you're worried about a possible bacterial infection. But a fascinating amphibian fable that turns out to be factual certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Christopher Columbus Discovers Puerto Rico

In the month of November, on the 19th, in 1493, Christopher Columbus discovered the island of Puerto Rico. Columbus was on his second voyage to the New World and arrived on the island with approximately 1,300 men and 17 ships. He named the island San Jaun Bautista to honor Saint John the Baptist. The explorer encountered the indigenous Taino people who called their island Borinquen and themselves, Boricua. In the beginning, the Taino people were friendly with Columbus and his men, sharing gifts and food and showing the explorers how they lived. Unfortunately, Columbus and his men soured the relationship with the island people by forcing them into labor and slavery. As interrelations continued to decline, smallpox took hold of the natives wiping out a majority of their people. The first European settlement on the island was established by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1508. The settlement was called Caparra. By 1521, the island was renamed Puerto Rico which means "rich port" and that port city became San Juan.

Haunted Cedar Key and the Island Hotel

We originally featured the Island Hotel and Restaurant in Cedar Key, Florida back on Ep. 36 in 2015. In November 2024, we stayed overnight and did a little investigating and while our experiences were subtle, it does seem that paranormal activity does occur here. The building was originally built in 1859 and used as a general store and it was built to last. The building material that was used was Tabby, which is a mixture of oyster shells, sand and limestone, and the structure has lasted 165 years. The most recent hurricanes to hit the area, particularly Hurricane Helene, only caused slight wind damage to the structure. The building has passed through the hands of many owners, some of whom may still remain in the afterlife. People claim there are as many as thirteen ghosts here. The rest of Cedar Key did not fair well during Hurricane Helene, but we still enjoyed the surroundings of what seems to be a very haunted island. Join us for the history and hauntings of the Island Hotel and Cedar Key!

Cedar Key is located just south of the mouth of the Suwannee River. This is actually a group of barrier islands, despite being referred to as just Cedar Key. The islands derived their name from the Eastern Red Cedar that once grew abundantly in the area. It is believed that Archaic indigenous people were here, followed by the Woodland Indians. These groups left behind shell mounds that can still be visited at Shell Mound Historic Site. When the Spanish arrived, the Timucua tribe were here and they were decimated by the Spanish when they arrived in the 1500s. The Cedar Keys would go on to be used by several groups including the Seminoles and pirates. The United States Army established itself on Cedar Key in 1839 by building a fort there where a garrison was headed by General Zachary Taylor. A hurricane in 1842 chased the army away. That same year, Congress passed a law called the Armed Occupation Act. The bill was a blatant attempt to run the Seminole off and bring more white people to Florida.

It would be the Florida Railroad that would bring big changes to Florida and in particular Cedar Key. The President of the Florida Railroad was also a United States Senator, David Levy Yulee. Yulee was a Jewish Moroccan, making him the first ever Jewish Senator. Because he was the president of the Florida Railroad, he was nicknamed the "Father of Florida Railroads." Yulee had bought Way Island, which was part of the Cedar Key group, to have a place for the railroad's terminal facilities. Cedar Key would become the railroad's western end of the line. The first train arrived in 1861.

Because the railroad meant prosperity, several people took interest in establishing homes and businesses there. Major John Parsons bought some land and began construction on the building that would one day become the Island Hotel. The structure was built from Tabby as we said and massive 12-inch oak beams secure the frame of the structure in the basement. Parsons partnered with a man named Francis E. Hale and when the building was finished, they named it Parsons and Hale's General Store. Unfortunately, just as the general store was ready for opening and business seemed ready to grow in Cedar Key, the Civil War started. It brought a halt to all growth and it brought war to Cedar Key. Union troops invaded the area and they burned nearly every building. The general store was left alone because the Union saw it as a strategic point for a headquarters. Cedar Key was near a major port and the general store provided shelter, supplies and storage.

Major Parsons joined the war effort and he served as a commander of some Confederate volunteers. He and his men defended the Gulf Coast and soon the Confederates were able to take back Cedar Key and they then used the general store as a barracks. The war ended and Parsons returned to Cedar Key where he and Hale reopened the general store. Parsons and Hale ran shipping from the general store and supplied the area with everything from furniture to oil to hardware to food to building supplies. The Cedar Key Post Office and the customs house were also inside the general store. At some point, Parsons and Hale decided to offer boarding at their place and John Muir is one of the people who may have stayed there. Muir is considered the father of America's National Park System. Cedar Key was the finish to his thousand mile walk, which he had started in Indiana and this walk was his attempt to study and enjoy the natural landscape. He wrote of this adventure in his book "A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf" and in it he recounts stepping into a little general store in Cedar Key. President Grover Cleveland is also rumored to have stayed at the Parsons and Hale's General Store on a return trip from Cuba. Times were very good, but they would not last.

Parsons died in 1888 at the age of 71. Florida is known for hurricanes and a big one hit Cedar Key in 1896. Most of the town was destroyed and despite the fact that the general store was built from almost indestructible tabby, it did suffer damage. A fire roared through the town a few years later and then the business collapsed. Cedar Key had hit rough times. Francis Hale died in 1910 and the property went to Langdon Parsons, Major Parsons nephew. He decided to sell the building in 1915 to a man named Simon Feinberg. Feinberg had no use for the general store and he turned the building into a full fledged hotel he named Bay Hotel. Feinberg added a second floor balcony and reconstructed much of the inside. Marcus Markham managed the operation with his wife.

On May 11, 1919, Feinberg died in the hotel under very mysterious circumstances. Feinberg was a religious man and he supported the efforts of the Temperance Society, a group heading up the effort to bring Prohibition. Prohibition had not been made law yet, but President Woodrow Wilson had already called for a temporary wartime prohibition in 1917. Feinberg had gone to the Bay Hotel to collect money from the manager and was dismayed to find out that the manager had been running a whiskey still in the attic. There was a false roof about twelve inches below the real roof and this concealed the copper pipes used for the still. The manager wanted to placate Feinberg, so he treated him to a wonderful meal and then Feinberg retired to the hotel and went to sleep. He never woke up.

The hotel would filter through the hands of several owners after the death of Feinberg. The building became known as the Cedar Key Hotel and then later was renamed Fowler's Wood after a new owner. It was the hotel's tenure as Fowler's Wood that it would become a brothel and speakeasy during the 1930s. A Mr. Crittenden managed the hotel at this time. In 1932, the railroad stopped running to Cedar Key and economic depression hit the area once again. Times were so tough for the hotel that it went into foreclosure. The owner took the foreclosure pretty hard and tried to burn the building down three different times. His plan might have worked had he stopped to remember that the fire department was right across the street. The fire was extinguished every time.

Ray Andrews bought the property at the end of the 30s and had his sister and her husband manage the place. It was here that most of the residents of Cedar Key heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1945, the King Neptune lounge was added to the hotel. The hotel would experience a renaissance and one of its grandest times when in 1946, Bessie and Loyal "Gibby" Gibbs purchased the hotel. It was in bad shape and they renovated it and reopened it as the Island Hotel. The couple added their unique flair to the place and Gibby kept bar. The townspeople loved to gather at the bar, as did visitors. Some of those visitors included Pearl Buck, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Frances Langford, Richard Boone and Myrna Loy. In 1948, the couple hired an artist to paint murals in the restaurant and bar and upstairs. The restaurant had a great reputation as well and was known as a place to eat the freshest seafood and vegetables around. Bessie created many of the recipes cooked by their chef Catherine "Big Buster" Johnson and she chastised any patrons who did not eat their vegetables. She is credited with creating the signature dish for the restaurant with Big Buster. That dish is Heart of Palm Salad and the restaurant still serves it. The recipe includes slivered lettuce, slivered palm hearts, pineapple chunks, chopped dates, chopped crystalized ginger that is covered in palm dressing made from mayonnaise, vanilla ice cream, peanut butter and green food coloring.

In 1950, Hurricane Easy hit Cedar Key and ripped the roof off of the Island Hotel. The upstairs room was water damaged as well as the King Neptune mural in the bar. The couple added the nearly wraparound veranda on the second level in 1958 and they filled it with rocking chairs. Gibby Gibbs died in 1962 and while Bessie had just lost her love and her rock, she forged forward with continuing to run the hotel. Gibby's body was cremated and his ashes spread at Channel Marker 32. Everyone called Bessie "Miss Bessie" and she was beloved on the island. She had a big personality and didn't put up with any nonsense. A drunk who came into the lounge filthy was quickly ushered out by Miss Bessie and she handed him a bar of soap. Miss Bessie got involved in the community in many areas. She helped establish a museum, she fought to keep the oldest house in Cedar Key from being demolished and the hotel served as a de facto Chamber of Commerce for the city of Cedar Key. The city gained not only prominence in Florida, but at a national level as well. Miss Bessie served as a City Commissioner, Judge, Fire Chief and Mayor. On top of all that, she ran the Island Hotel successfully until 1973. 

Arthritis was getting the best of Miss Bessie by that time and two back operations had left her in a wheelchair. She sold the hotel to Charles and Shirley English and bought a little wooden cottage on Hwy. 24. Bessie would die tragically in a house fire two years later and her remains were cremated and laid at sea with Gibby. We ended our trip on Cedar Key with a visit to the Cedar Key Cemetery to see Miss Bessie's cenotaph. The Englishs did not last long and they sold the hotel to Harold Nabors in 1978. Nabors remodeled the bar and made that his main focus, letting the restaurant and hotel fall by the wayside. In 1980, he sold the operation to Marcia Rogers and she refocused efforts on the restaurant once again, hiring Chef Jahn McCumbers. The restaurant again became a place known for its food. Singer Jimmy Buffett became a frequent guest at the Island Hotel during the 1980s and gave impromptu performances in the Neptune Bar. The hotel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. Marcia got a little New Agey at this time and closed the Neptune Bar to the public and made it into a coffee and juice bar where she hosted things like the Full Moon Wakefulness Retreat. Cedar Key residents burned her in effigy in front of the post office in response. And that's not surprising because the locals love this lounge and it was very busy on the Saturday night we stayed there.

Tom and Allison Sanders bought the place in 1992 and cleaned it from top to bottom and reopened the Neptune Bar after they fully reconstructed it, covering it with a Cedar Key cedar top. The Island Hotel became a social center once again and the restaurant continued its reputation for good food still under Chef Jahn McCumbers. Dawn Fisher and Tony Cousins moved to Florida from England and they purchased the Island Hotel in 1996. The couple would focus on refurbishing the hotel and added private bathrooms to every room. Central heat and air was also added, bringing the hotel more up to date. Televisions and phones were still kept out of the rooms to retain the hotel's charm and that continues today. While redecorating the dining room, the couple hired a colorist to help them decide which colors to use. They chose a lilac and plum with a pine ceiling. Dawn got the shock of her life when Bessie Gibbs' nephew came to visit and showed her a bunch of old photos. One of the photos was in color and featured the dining room. The colors that Bessie had chosen to paint the dining room were the same ones that the dining room was repainted with by Dawn.

Dawn and Tony got married and had a child and realized that the hotel was too much for them, so they sold it in 2001 to Bill and MaryLou Stewart. The Stewarts had been born in Florida, but they had both ended up in Texas. They retired and decided to return to Florida. Things at the hotel seemed fine at first, but in 2002, the couple abruptly fired the entire staff, boarded up the place and ran back to Texas. The Cousins took back ownership and reopened the hotel and restaurant. They then sold the place to Andy and Stanley Bair, who still own it today. They refreshed the place and have run it for the past twenty years. Stanley writes of their adventure, "We returned to the States in August 2003 and began a search for 'that one last quiet, undeveloped spot' that might be still found in Florida. We stumbled onto Cedar Key and the Island Hotel. We immediately knew we had found what we were looking for. The wonderfully quaint island and the manner in which they welcomed us has been a bonus beyond our wildest dreams. We are greeted every day by friendly, smiling faces. Our first few weeks were spent giving the hotel a face lift. We painted the downstairs lobby and replaced worn out furniture throughout the hotel. A new bath/shower was added for room #27. The hotel quickly came back to life, and I do believe even the ghosts are smiling. It is as if they had spent the day at a beauty parlor! Our staff is excited about the 'new look' and they have reason to be proud of 'their' hotel again."

The Island Hotel has ten rooms and operates as a bed and breakfast, so there is a complimentary breakfast in the morning. Get the french toast - you won't be disappointed. All the rooms are decorated differently with antiques and each has their own private bathroom. Rooms 27 and 28 have the bathroom across the hall from the room, which can be a little inconvenient, but we didn't mind. Although there are no televisions or phones in the rooms, there is Wi-Fi. As one can see, the hotel has passed through many hands, but it has never lost its character. Its spirit has continued to thrive and now some say that spirits from the past remain here at the Island Hotel. Thirteen spirits to be exact. Let us introduce you to the thirteen ghosts. As described earlier, Native Americans lived in the area before the Island Hotel was built. Three spirits have not been described by anybody, but psychics claim that they are there. Then there are two spirits of Native Americans that have been seen in the hotel at various times. A fisherman has made an appearance and another specter has been described as tall and thin. None of these spirits is very well known, but the rest of the thirteen are seen more often and have made themselves known.

One of these is a young black boy. When the Island Hotel was Parsons and Hale's General Store, this young man of nine was given the job of stock boy. He would stock shelves and keep the store clean. One day, something went missing in the store and the manager accused him of stealing. Whether the boy actually stole anything is not known, but he was scared and ran away and hid. The location he chose to hide in was a bad one. It was a five foot deep, 2,500 gallon cement cistern in the basement of the store and he drowned. No one knew what happened to him until his skeleton was discovered in the cistern a year later. The young boy's ghost continues to haunt the basement. Although, Kelly thinks she had him interacting with her on the dowsing rods in our room on the second floor.

There is another female spirit that is described as a small-waisted woman wearing a long black dress with a modest black hat. She has been seen in the downstairs by staff and guests for decades. This spirit is usually holding a pitcher of water. She is thought to have been a woman who ate at the restaurant and then died on her way home when her carriage overturned. This spirit and the little black boy are thought to cause puddles in the hotel. One of these puddles kept appearing under a bed. Sometimes water would be dripping down from the bed frame, but the bed and bedding were dry. On another occasion, a mother came to the hotel so her daughter could write a paper on the ghosts of the hotel. This mother was amused by the whole idea of ghosts until a staff member took them to the puddle room and a puddle of water formed at the mother's feet. When the staff member pointed this out, the mother screamed, grabbed her daughter and ran from the hotel.

The most seen ghost at the hotel is that of a Confederate soldier who apparently died on the property for unknown reasons. Had he been wounded or did something sinister take place? His ghost seems to like to take early morning walks and is often seen in the early morning mist that blankets the coastal location. He is seen standing at attention near the doors leading to the stairs, also. Some have wondered if the apparition is that of Major Parsons who had led a Confederate garrison.

As we talked about earlier, Simon Feinberg had died at the hotel under mysterious circumstances. Had his meal been too rich and caused him to have a heart attack or was someone trying to protect their whiskey still and made sure he would not interfere with operations by killing him? Was he poisoned? Feinberg seems to be at unrest. Hotel guests have seen him walking the halls and heard disembodied footsteps. Feinberg is called the "Wandering Ghost" for this reason. He has been seen in Room 27, which is the room where he died. He also seems to like the kitchen pantry.

Room 27 seems to be the most active area of the hotel, which is why we booked that one. Besides being haunted by former owner Feinberg, a prostitute from the brothel days hangs out in this room and the adjacent Room 28. She had worked here during the Depression and it is believed she was murdered. Male guests have had the most experiences with her. They not only see her, but they feel their bed being sat upon and occasionally a patron receives a disembodied kiss. When lights are turned on, she vanishes. This painted lady appears wearing white and also likes the waitress station in the early evening. Two female guests found a tiny indentation on their bed as though someone was sitting on it when they returned to their room after having a hot toddy in the Neptune Lounge.

The manager who some think poisoned Simon Feinberg was Marcus Markham. He was drinking one night in the King Neptune Lounge when he got in a fight with a steamboat captain. The argument got very heated and a knife was pulled. When the fight was over, Markham had been stabbed to death. His spirit seems to have taken up residence in the bar. His apparition is most often seen behind the bar near the pantry. Bullet slugs have also been found in the wall behind the King Neptune painting. Were these just from some idiot shooting at the painting or did something else take place here in the bar? Hopefully Markham and Feinberg stay away from each other.

The dominant ghost at the Island Hotel is Bessie Gibbs, whose tenure at the hotel is the most memorable. It's not surprising that she would be here since she loved it and she still enjoys taking care of the place. People claim to see her attempting to make beds and cleaning and rearranging furniture. Miss Bessie is a prankster who enjoys locking guests out of their rooms and occasionally comes walking through rooms in the middle of the night only to disappear through another wall. Owners have been locked out of the hotel several times with not only the front door being locked, but the kitchen screen door is locked from the inside. She drops pictures off the wall, unplugs lamps and makes loud noises. The swing on the second floor is her favorite spot as she sat there often during her tenure. We definitely interacted with her and will share more about that in a moment.

One guest reported the following story, "After being out many hours later, my husband wanted to go to sleep while I still wanted to hang out in the famous lounge. I told him to keep the lights on and I was taking the flashlight (having heard that the main ghost had sense of humor about flipping on and off lights). The lights were still on though when I went upstairs. I still felt strangely calm (and I'm rather intuitive and sensitive so if I hadn't been feeling peaceful I would not have even fallen asleep). After several hours of good sleep, I immediately was awakened by a LOUD BANG. It sounded like a book had been slammed to the floor. That was all I heard I waited a while longer and then woke my husband up and asked him to check to see if the Bible that was right next to the bed was still there. He said it was. He got up and turned the nightlights on and we both discovered that a Kleenex box that was on a coffee table across the room had been thrown down across the floor. Just to rule out any possibility of a breeze doing this we did all sets of tests placing the box under a fan and everything but knew it had to have been thrown." 

Our friends over at Peace River Ghost Trackers have investigated the building and the following were their personal experiences:

*We entered the basement at 4:30pm and was also accompanied by Derrick from channel 20 news out of Gainesville. The basement had a lot of dust so any pictures from down there are hard to prove. Scott did have a heavy feeling at one point near the cistern where a 9 year old boy had drowned in the 1860’s. Scott had to remove himself for a moment from that area. Sprout also felt the heavy feeling in her chest and also chose to leave.
* Sprout was entering the room behind the bar at around 1:30am which was where a man had died of a knife stabbing. While entering I had a very cold breeze sweep over the top of my left hand and could find no explanation for it.
* At 2:15am Toni, Sprout, Janice and Scott where in the kitchen using dowsing rods to communicate with a man who is connected with the pantry. Many staff have seen and felt his presence for many years. We were standing in the order stated above when the activity occurred. Janice was facing the pantry and using the dowsing rods, she asked where the spirit was and the one rod swung around and pointed behind her. When Janice asked for the spirit to move in front of her, Toni said “here it comes”. Toni said she saw a dark shadow of a figure of a man coming towards her then making a sharp turn in front of all of us. One at a time we all said “oh” as the coldness swept passed us. I saw Janice shaking from the cold and Scott said it went down his arm.
*We had laid down for bed at 4:30am and shortly after I (Sprout) heard what I thought to be the piano down in the lobby. It was about 7 or 8 hits on the high notes of the keyboard then Lori started to talk. (her first time in a haunted hotel she was a bit nervous ) then I heard it again about 4 hits this time. That's when I asked Scott if we would be able to hear the piano in our room. He said he hopes so because he had just heard it. Didn't get up cause we were pooped and had enough for the night. I can say I believe we were the last to go to our rooms for bed and didn't hear anyone else up and moving about the hall.
* In the morning we were getting the 2 sets of keys together for check out but could only find one set. The key was finally found in the Velcro sealed left pocket of a pair of shorts in the suitcase. They were Scotts shorts and he does not use the left pocket. They were also folded up and unworn shorts. Lori watched her video from the night before and saw Scott take the key out of the door. He put almost everything on the dresser so it was assumed that is where he set the key. There were several incidents of room doors being unlocked by themselves told to us by other investigators. Sprout even witnessed room 23’s door unlock twice by itself. The occupants of the room were inside during the first time and were sitting on the opposite side of the room when the door unlocked.

The television show "Haunted Inns and Mansions" featured the Island Hotel in 1999. Debra Lyon-Dye wrote "Cedar Key Spirit Tour, A Walk Through History" in 2016 and she shares two of her experiences in it. (pg. 92-93)

Our investigation of the hotel gave us subtle results. We first conducted an EVP session and we think we caught something. (Island Hotel EVP) Sounds like "yeah" or "yep" perhaps to the question of whether there were multiple spirits with us. We tried a couple ESTES sessions, but absolutely nothing was coming through using the AM band. I (Diane) didn't trust the FM band. Our most prominent experience involved glasses. I was positive I had put my reading glasses in my fanny pack before we headed down to dinner, but when I went to pull them out to read the menu, they weren't in my pack. When we returned to the room, I expected to see them sitting on the bed or side table where I had accidentally left them. Not there. We searched the room and I concluded that I had lost them somewhere. We turned our backs from the couch to look some more and then Kelly goes, "Here they are!" front and center in the middle of the couch. No way we would have missed them, especially because my laptop was sitting there open and I had looked behind it. I tried to explain it away as we just both missed seeing them, but then we heard from our listener Joanne about her many experiences and this convinced us that Miss Bessie was playing around.

(Joanne's experiences)

There are other haunted locations on Cedar Key. The Historical Society Museum that was the former Lutterloh Building is located at 609 2nd Street. This started as John Lutterloh's private residence and eventually was used as an army depot, service station, restaurant, library and gift shop. The last owner was Gertrude Teas and she donated the building to the historical society in 1978. The building was restored in 2007 and hosts a variety of exhibits on the history of the island. The ghost here is referred to as the Chain Smoking Ghost. Smoke is smelled in the building and upon investigation, nothing is found. Chairs occasionally fall over on their own and strange noises are heard.

The Hale Building located at the corner of Second and D Street is named for former mayor Francis E. Hale who built the structure in 1880 to be used as a clothing and grocery store. The structure is 4,000 square feet with 17 inch thick tabby walls, fifteen foot ceiling, heart of cedar timber framing and a bricked courtyard in the back. A second story porch was added at the turn-of-the-century. Several businesses have used the building including I.O. Andrews & Co., which sold ladies' and gents' furnishing goods, a doctor's office was here as was a real estate office. There was a bar and a movie house and Tony's Chowder House, which opened in 2005 and is still there today on the ground floor. Chef Eric's chowder has won world-championships. The restaurant is named for his brother. Hauntings: pg 101

Cedar Key has certainly seen its fair share of tragedy and death via storms and such. The spirit of these islands is strong and some have to wonder if the presence of spirits is also strong. Does the Island Hotel host more than just living guests? Are there spirits here, particularly Miss Bessie? Are Cedar Key and the Island Hotel haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 564 - The Life and Afterlife of John F. Kennedy

Moment in Oddity - Invention of the Webcam (Suggested by: Ruth Dempsey)

For many people, coffee fuels their day. Those who work in a corporate setting know how tragic it can be heading to the coffee machine just to find the energizing beverage is all gone. What if you worked in a seven story building that only had a single coffee pot that held a mere 6 cups! That's the stuff of nightmares. Traveling multiple floors just to find an empty pot is a horrifying thought! In 1991, the University of Cambridge was in that particular predicament. Their solution was an invention that many of us use today. Computer scientist, Dr. Quentin Stafford-Fraser stated, "One of the things that's very, very important in computer science research is a regular and dependable flow of caffeine". To resolve the issue, Dr. Quentin and Dr. Paul Jardetzky set up a camera to monitor the single coffee pot that supplied all seven floors of their building. The webcam would record photos three times per minute. The men also wrote software that would allow people in other departments to view the camera images on their computers. This helped people cope with the emotional distress of traveling all the way from other floors just to find an empty carafe. Contemplating a building of 7 floors only containing a 6 cup fuel for life is terrifying in and of itself, but the fact that it was the precursor to a modern day device such as the webcam, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Bram Stoker Born

In the month of November, on the 8th, in 1847, Abraham "Bram" Stoker was born in Marino Crescent, Dublin, Ireland. He was the third of seven children born to parents Abraham Stoker and Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornley. Bram was a sickly boy due to an unknown illness which seemingly resolved itself once he started school at the age of seven. He wrote of this time, "I was naturally thoughtful, and the leisure of long illness gave opportunity for many thoughts which were fruitful according to their kind in later years.". Serious illness never found him again until later in life. He even excelled in multiple sports while attending Trinity College and Dublin University. Stoker began his interest in the theatre while still a student. He took a position as a theatre critic but at the time, this type of job position was held in low regard. However, Stoker's way with the written word garnered much attention. Soon he was publishing his first short stories beginning in 1872 with "Crystal Cup" and graduating to his first novel with "The Primrose Path" in 1875. During his days as a theatre critic, Stoker wrote a favourable review of Henry Irving's performance in Hamlet. This critique prompted an invitation to dinner by Irving and the two became fast friends. Bram Stoker went on to work at the Lyceum Theatre alongside Henry Irving serving as his business manager and personal assistant. Stoker was a prolific writer but he is most well known for his Gothic horror novel Dracula. Some say that Vlad the Impaler was Stoker's inspiration for the classic novel, although today many people dispute this. However, the physical attributes of Count Dracula are said to be modeled after his friend Henry Irving with his aquiline face, high nose bridge, arched nostrils, domed forehead and bushy eyebrows. Bram Stoker suffered a stroke in 1906, shortly after the death of his friend Henry Irving in October 1905. The initial stroke left him significantly debilitated and over the following six years he suffered many more before his passing in 1912.

The Life and Afterlife of John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy's presidency lasted for only 1,000 days, but his legacy has lived on for decades. He was the youngest man elected to the Presidency and his youth and vision inspired a nation. His life was cut short by an assassin's bullet, a bullet that people still debate the origin of to this day. And perhaps that is why the spirit of JFK seems to be at unrest. Or was it because his life was cut so very short? Join us for the life and afterlife of John F. Kennedy!

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born to Joseph and Rose Kennedy on May 29, 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts. He was the second of their nine children and named for Rose's father. Every one called him Jack. The family faced a bit of discrimination because they were Irish Catholics and this seemed to fuel the families desire to be successful. Joseph Kennedy attended Harvard College and made a promise to himself to become a millionaire by the time he was thirty-five. And he made good on that mainly through the Stock Market where he did insider trading and market manipulation. The Kennedy family was involved in politics, which would pass down from Joseph Kennedy's father to his sons. Trust funds were set up for the Kennedy siblings and they would never know want. Despite the life of privilege, Jack was a sick kid. He nearly died from Scarlet Fever before he was three. A variety of illnesses would plague him his whole life.

The Kennedys moved outside of Boston when Jack was three. The family spent summers in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod, which is a six acre property with three houses that has been nicknamed the Kennedy Compound. Christmas and Easter would be spent at the Kennedy winter retreat in Palm Beach, Florida. Jack Kennedy started attending Canterbury School in 1930, but transferred to Choate (KOH-ate) the following year after he had an appendectomy and had to leave school to recover for several weeks. Choate technically was Choate Rosemary Hall, which was a private college-preparatory school in Connecticut. Joe Sr. had picked this school because he wanted his sons to mingle with Protestants as he figured this would help their future political careers. The pressure to succeed was tough for Jack and he had a hard time measuring up to his older brother Joe. So Jack became a rebel, leading a pack of boys into playing pranks like exploding a toilet seat with a firecracker. He nicknamed his crew The Muckers Club after the headmaster said a bunch of "muckers" had done the deed. One member of the group was a guy named Lem Billings who would be a lifelong friend of Kennedy.

Billings was a year ahead of Jack, so he repeated his senior year so that he could graduate with Jack. He spent holidays with the Kennedys and they treated him like another son. Jackie Kennedy would later comment that Billings had been a house guest at her house since she married Jack. Billings helped with the campaign for the presidency and would help organize White House dinners. He was often referred to as the "First Friend" and he helped Jack to get around when he was ill, some staff referring to him as being better than a trained nurse. Billings was gay and Kennedy knew this all the way going back to Choate. Based on some pictures that I've seen of the two, it would seem Billings carried a torch for Jack. The feelings may or may not have been reciprocated, but Jack wasn't worried about Billings.

Kennedy enrolled at Harvard College in 1936 and he got involved in sports and various clubs, one of which was the Spee Club, an elite "final club" at the university. In 1939, he traveled extensively through Europe. In 1940, he graduated cum laude from Harvard with a Bachelor of Arts in government. War was rolling across Europe at this time and the Kennedy brothers joined the Navy, with Joe going off to be a flyer in Europe and Jack became a commander of a patrol torpedo boat in the South Pacific. That boat had a crew of twelve men under Lt. Kennedy and on August 2, 1943, it came upon a Japanese destroyer that was headed directly towards it. The destroyer split  Kennedy's boat in half, killing two men. Everyone else abandoned ship as Kennedy was slammed hard in the cockpit. He had an old football injury that was aggravated. Despite his injury, Kennedy rescued one of his men and then led the rest to a small nearby island. The group survived on the island for six days before two native islanders found them and went to get help. Jack had escaped death. The following year, his brother Joe would not escape death. His plane blew up while he was on a dangerous mission.

Jack returned home and received medals and the war ended. Joseph Sr. had been grooming his eldest for politics and he had big dreams for his son Joe. Now Joe was dead and Joe Sr. was determined to push Jack in the same direction he had been guiding Joe Jr. In 1946, Jack began his assent to the presidency by running for Congress in Massachusetts and he won. He served three terms and then ran for Senate, winning that seat in 1952. The following year, on September 12, 1953, he married Jacqueline Bouvier. Jackie was 12 years his junior. She was born in 1929 in New York and named after her father John "Black Jack" Bouvier. She grew up in Manhattan and Long Island and had a great relationship with her father early on, but he fell into alcoholism and had multiple affairs leading her mother to separating from her father in 1936. The divorce would be finalized in 1940 and Jackie was deeply affected by the split. Jackie graduated from George Washington University in 1951. 

Jack and Jackie met at a dinner party hosted by journalist Charles L. Bartlett in May of 1952. They had a lot in common. They were both Catholics and intellectual equals. Jackie's wedding dress was designed by fashion designer Ann Lowe, who came up in our previous episode about the Tampa Bay Hotel. The marriage was tested early with Jack nearly dying during a spinal operation in 1954 and Jackie suffered a miscarriage in 1955. In 1956, the couple had a stillborn daughter. In 1957, Caroline was born and the family posed for the cover of a Life magazine in 1958 as Jack ran for re-election to the Senate. Jack Kennedy was a writer on top of everything else and he wrote "Profiles in Courage" in 1955 and he won the Pulitzer Prize in history. Jack began flirting with the presidency in 1956 when he was almost nominated as Vice President. Four years later, the Democrats would make him their nominee for President.

JFK chose fellow challenger Lyndon B. Johnson as his running mate. He figured Johnson would help him win the South. Richard M. Nixon, who was the current Republican Vice President, was nominated as the Republican nominee. Many people thought that Kennedy was too young to be President at the age of 43, but it worked in his favor because this campaign would be the first to be heavily televised. Debates were run in prime time slots and a sweaty, older Nixon looked bad next to a young and fresh-faced Kennedy. The race was very close and Jack barely won the popular vote. During the campaign, Jackie was pregnant with John Jr. and he was born right before Kennedy was inaugurated. Jack was sworn in as the 35th president on January 20, 1961. His inaugural speech would give us the enduring line, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." The Kennedys would have another son named Patrick that was born in 1963, but he died shortly after birth from a serious lung ailment.

The Kennedys tenure at the White House improved "the People's House" greatly. The couple loved history and they wanted people to visit the White House. Jackie restored all the rooms in the White House and the couple gathered the finest art and furniture in the United States. The White House also became a home catered towards children as Caroline and John-John were very young. A tree house sat out on the White House lawn and a preschool was set up inside. Kennedy was the first president to have press conferences broadcast live on television.

The Kennedy presidency occurred at the height of the Cold War. The Soviet Union and the United States had been racing to outdo each other in manufacturing nuclear weapons. JFK was very worried about the prospect of a war that he knew would kill millions of people. He also wanted to fight Communism and President Eisenhower had set his eyes on Cuba and overthrowing Fidel Castro and Kennedy carried out that task. A band of Cuban exiles were trained and sent to invade Cuba and the place they landed was called the Bay of Pigs. The invasion was ill-fated and no one was supposed to know the US was involved and it failed on all fronts. Kennedy paced around the White House for days berating himself for being so stupid. When it came to confronting the Soviet Union, he was far more successful.  

The Cuban Missile Crisis originated in October of 1962 and this would be the closest that America and the Soviet Union would come to nuclear conflict in all of history. Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev had reached a deal with Fidel Castro to bring nuclear missiles into the country. Castro was eager to agree because of the Bay of Pigs attempted invasion. American intelligence services caught wind of the plan and Kennedy knew there was no way he could allow those weapons to get so close to America. A public warning was issued by President Kennedy and it went ignored as missile sites were constructed in Cuba. Kennedy sent a letter to Khrushchev and issued a "quarantine" on Cuba. JFK addressed the nation that evening and said, "It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union." Tensions rose, we went to DEFCON 2 and JFK considered an attack on Cuba. There were mixed messages and misunderstandings as things escalated. The crisis ended on the 13th day of the confrontation after a secret deal was made that embarrassed the Soviets in public. They publicly removed everything from Cuba, while America secretly removed their missiles from Turkey in exchange. 

President Kennedy had big goals for America. He wanted to pass civil rights laws to help end segregation in the country and he proposed a new Civil Rights bill to Congress. He addressed Americans on TV saying, "One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds…[and] on the principle that all men are created equal." JFK created the Peace Corps, that still exists today, and this program takes Americans around the world to help on projects in disadvantaged areas. He had dreams of winning the space race and he said in a speech at Rice University, "We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too." Kennedy would be president for 1,000 days and then an assassin's bullet would cut him down in the prime of life and at the height of his presidency and he wouldn't see many of his goals come to fruition.

Now before we get into the assassination, we've painted a very nice picture here of JFK. This is what the Kennedys would want, specifically Jackie who would present the whole idea of Camelot to the general public. But there is a lot of "ick" when it comes to JFK. As we discussed in our Life and Afterlife of Marilyn Monroe, it was no secret that JFK was having an affair with Monroe, as was his brother Bobby. The idea that the brothers were behind her death is a source of controversy, but one that we could believe. JFK ended up cutting Monroe off after Jackie threatened to take the kids and make the affair public so that he could kiss a second term goodbye. The Kennedy men were not good for women. No one knows for sure how many women Jack slept with during his marriage, but saying "dozens," hardly scratches the surface. Three to five different women a week is very possible. JFK was an ill man with a list of ailments and he believed that sex helped treat some of these illnesses. And Jackie may have looked the other way because trying to keep up with a sex addict would be an impossibility. Maureen Callahan wrote the book, "Ask Not: The Kenndys and the Women They Destroyed" in 2024. In it, she shares the assault of a young virginal 19-year-old by JFK and it is clear that the Kennedy men for several generations have used women for their own needs.

But that wasn't the only dark side to JFK. Did the Mafia help get Jack elected? There are theories that the Chicago Outfit was approached by either Joseph Kennedy or Frank Sinatra to get their help with getting union members to elect Kennedy. Was JFK's marriage to Jackie, his second marriage? New York Times writer Seymour Hersh suggested in his book "The Dark Side of Camelot," with FBI records to back it up, that Jack got really drunk at a party in 1947 and ran off with a beautiful socialite named Durie Malcolm to a Justice of the Peace and got secretly married. When his father Joseph found out, he had it annulled. Malcolm denied before her death that she had ever married Kennedy. The Kennedy family used to joke that if a mosquito ever bit Jack, it would die. Jack had a failure of the adrenal glands called Addison's disease that would have killed him if not for cortisone shots. He had intense back issues for which he needed painkillers. He was prone to infection. The man was basically a walking pharmacy and his doctor was the original Dr. Feelgood. He would give the President these speed-laced cocktails. So whether he meant to be a drug addict or not, JFK certainly was one.

And this brings us to a day that would be a moment in time that many people can set the calendar of the lives upon. It was around thirty minutes after noon on November 22, 1963 when President Kennedy and his wife Jackie were sitting in the back seat of a limo going through Dealy Plaze in Dallas, Texas, waving to the crowds when a bullet blew a hole into Jack's head. JFK was preparing to run for re-election in the fall of 1963 and Texas was an important state. The President's team planned a two-day, five-city tour through Texas which began with San Antonio. Dallas was the third stop and Governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie, picked the Kennedys up in an open convertible Lincoln Continental limousine. It had a plastic bubble that could go on top of it in case of rain, but some early morning rain had stopped, so the top was taken off. The car entered Dealey Plaza and Nellie Connally yelled back to JFK, "Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you." President Kennedy answered, "No, you certainly can't." She then heard three gunshots in quick succession. Her husband was shot in the back and the President was shot once in the upper back that went through to the front of the neck and once in the head. The back wound indicates a shot from behind. The head wound indicates a shot from the front.

The car had just gone past the Texas School Book Depository and inside, on the third floor, was a man named Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald had once been a Marine who earned a sharpshooter qualification. He was reportedly a Marxist who moved to the Soviet Union and tried to get citizenship. When the Marines found out about this, they downgraded his discharge from honorable to undesirable. Oswald returned to the US with a woman he had married in the Soviet Union and their daughter in 1962. He purchased a rifle with telescopic sight and a .38 revolver. In 1963, he moved to Texas and got a job at the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. The official investigation, The Warren Commission, would claim that Oswald acted alone and that he fired three bullets from a sixth-floor window at the southeast corner of the Book Depository. Oswald ran from the scene and when confronted by Patrolman J.D. Tippit, he shot and killed him. He then hid at the Texas Theater and was arrested there. He was arraigned and interrogated over two days. Oswald denied any guilt and said, "I didn’t shoot anybody, no sir … I’m just a patsy." The plan was then to transfer him to the county jail on November 24, 1963 and he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby. Ruby claimed he acted alone and that he was angry over the assassination, but many people believe he was part of a wider plan too. Ruby was convicted and sentenced to die in the electric chair, but the ruling was overturned on appeal. A pulmonary embolism from lung cancer, killed Ruby in 1967.

Nobody believes that Oswald was a lone shooter. Ok, there is a poll that about 33% of people do think Oswald acted alone, but anyone who watches the Zapruder film knows that the head shot came from the front of the President. That's why his head goes back and the back of his skull is blown off. A few seconds before that happens, Jack reaches up to his throat, which is probably when he was shot through the back. The House of Representatives Assassination Committee in 1979 found that it was possible that there was another shooter. Official records claim that there was no federal agent on the grassy knoll that day. JFK Documentary Producer Brent Holland tells a story about Texas police officer Joe M. Smith racing behind the picket fence on the grassy knoll and encountering a suspicious man lurking right behind the fence where it was believed the shots had come from. This man pulled out a Secret Service badge and he told Smith to keep looking. Several other witnesses reportedly ran into a Secret Service agent as well. So if there were officially no federal agents assigned to be there, where was this guy from? Was he really Secret Service? Did he fire the shots? 

There was a man named James Braden who was arrested on the day of the assassination at the Dal Tex Building in Dealey Plaza. It was found that this was an alias and his real name was Eugene Hail Brading and he had a long record of criminal activity. He was later released, but there are verified reports that he met with Jack Ruby the night of November 21, 1963. Fast forward to Robert Kennedy's assassination and guess who was picked up for questioning fifteen minutes away from the site of the assassination? Brading. There are other conspiracy theories as well. Some believe Cuban exiles carried this out or that the Mob had Kennedy taken out. New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello admitted on tape to the FBI in 1985 that he had planned the assassination and that Ruby worked for him. Still others look at the government and point at the CIA. There's no better way to shut up a President and give a stark warning to future Presidents, than to gun him down in broad daylight in front of a crowd of people. We've heard people argue that Lyndon Johnson and George H.W. Bush might have been involved as well.

Jackie was an amazing woman. She had endured losing three children. She tolerated countless affairs. And she watched her husband get his head blown off in broad daylight as he sat next to her. She immediately crawled across the back of the car to gather the pieces of his skull that had been blown off the back of his head and then she tried to piece his skull back together and hold it together as they rushed to Parkland Hospital. Jackie boarded Air Force One later that day, still covered in her husband's blood and probably brain matter, and witnessed the swearing in of Vice president Lyndon B. Johnson because she wanted to reassure the nation that we had a continuity of government. And then she planned a great memorial and helped a nation mourn.

President Kennedy's assassination affected the country deeply. Neither of us were alive at that time, so we thought it would be interesting to hear from Diane's parents what it was like to be alive at that time. (Mom and Dad on Kennedy)

As Diane's parents said, a horse-drawn caisson carried Kennedy’s flag-draped coffin to St. Matthew’s Catholic Cathedral from the Capitol Rotunda on November 25th. The riderless horse with the boots in reverse in the sirrups was named Black Jack. This is one of the highest military honors bestowed upon the fallen. There were 800,000 people along the funeral procession route. Kennedy was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery and Jackie lit eternal flame. But this may not have been the end for JFK's spirit.

There are those that claim that there is a curse connected to the family, the Kennedy Curse. Now keep in mind, this is a large family so having several tragedies is possible. But it does seem they have had more than their share.

August 12, 1944 – Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. died when the military aircraft he was piloting exploded over East Suffolk, England.
September 9, 1944 – William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, newlywed husband of Kathleen Kennedy, was fatally shot by a German sniper while leading his company near Heppen, Belgium.
May 13, 1948 – Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy (formally known as Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington) died in a plane crash in France.
August 23, 1956 – Arabella Kennedy, daughter of John F. Kennedy, died at birth.
August 9, 1963 – Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, son of John F. Kennedy, died of infant respiratory distress syndrome two days after his premature birth on August 7 in Otis Air Force Base, Massachusetts.
November 22, 1963 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas.
June 5, 1968 – U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on the night of his victory in the California primary; Robert died the following morning.
January 23, 1974 – Athalia Ponsell Lindsley, who dated Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. until his death, was murdered at her home.
April 25, 1984 – David A. Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy, died of a drug overdose in a Palm Beach, Florida hotel room.
December 31, 1997 – Michael LeMoyne Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy, died in a skiing accident after crashing into a tree in Aspen, Colorado.
July 16, 1999 – John F. Kennedy Jr. died together with his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette, when the plane he was piloting crashed off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
September 16, 2011 – Kara Kennedy, daughter of Ted Kennedy, died of a heart attack while exercising in a Washington, D.C. health club.
May 16, 2012 – Mary Richardson Kennedy, wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., died by suicide on the grounds of her home in Bedford, New York.
August 1, 2019 – Saoirse Kennedy Hill, granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy, died of an accidental drug overdose at the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.
April 2, 2020 – Maeve Kennedy McKean, granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy, disappeared with her eight-year-old son, Gideon, during a short canoe trip in Chesapeake Bay. Their bodies were recovered from the bay later that week. Autopsies revealed that both had accidentally drowned in the turbulent and chilly water.

Another weird thing about Kennedy that seems to have some paranormal connections are the connections between President Kennedy and President Lincoln. (pg. 117 in "Haunted Presidents by Charles A. Stansfield, Jr.)

As for Kennedy's ghost, there are people who say they sense the spirit of JFK at the Kennedy Compound. And his final resting place at Arlington Cemetery has reports of a bright, luminous mist being seen over the grave or near it. The full-bodied apparition of JFK has been seen at the grave as well. These mostly came in at a time when the coffin had to be moved so that a permanent gas line could be installed to replace a propane tank. Jack might also haunt a historic location on the Freedom Trail in Boston named the Union Oyster House.

No one is sure exactly when the building was built, but the street it is named for was laid in 1636. Hopestill Capen's dress shop was here starting in 1742. The oldest newspaper in the United States was established on the upper floor in 1771 and was called "The Massachusetts Spy." This was published by printer Isaiah Thomas. The first paymaster of the Continental Army set up his headquarters here in 1775. During the Revolutionary War, Capen's silk and dry goods store hosted the wives of Adams, Hancock and Quincy, as well as other women, who sewed and mended clothes here. Louis Phillippe, who would be king of France from 1830 to 1848, lived on the second floor of the building in 1796. He taught French to the young ladies of Boston. Capen's Dry Goods Store closed in 1826 and two men named Hawes Atwood and Allen Holbrook Bacon bought the former store and opened the Old Oyster House in 1826. They installed a semi-circular Oyster Bar. Fun Fact: The toothpick was used here for the first time. A man named Charles Forster had imported toothpicks from South America and he hired Harvard boys to eat at the Union Oyster House and ask for toothpicks. The restaurant then was owned by someone else and in 1970, Joseph and Mary Ann Milano bought the place and still own it today. This was a favorite restaurant for Jack and he loved the privacy of the upstairs dining room. The booth that he used was nicknamed "The Kennedy Booth" and it was dedicated to his memory. JFK's spirit likes to hang out at the booth. His apparition has appeared in the dining room and seems to just be silently watching people eat. In the bathroom, his reflection has sometimes been seen in the mirror.

President John Kennedy inspired a nation and highlighted that we could solve our common problems if we put our country's interests first and worked together. He was a catalyst to civil rights legislation. He protected this nation from nuclear war. And he was a flawed man. Jack's life was cut short and there really has been no justice for that act. Could his spirit be at unrest? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 563 - Historic Tampa Bay Hotel

Moment in Oddity - Mongolian Death Worm (Suggested by: Michael Rogers)

The Gobi Desert is located in Southern Mongolia and Northwestern China. The land is stony and is almost waterless, save for some salt marshes. It is an extreme desert with temperatures ranging from -40 F in the winter and climbing to 113 F in the summer. Various animals call the desert home, ranging from camels, gazelles, wolves and snow leopards just to name a few. There is a most unique creature however that also calls this desert home. The Mongolian Death Worm. The worms are said to look like a sausage and range from 2-5 feet in length. Mongolians say that the death worms are able to kill from a distance by spraying venom at its prey or by means of an electrical discharge. The locals call it olgoi-khorkhoi which roughly translates to, "large intestine worm". It is said that there is no discernable head or tail and that the creature lives underground most of the time with the exception of summer when the creatures rise out of the sand to attack and kill. Their diet consists of prey based upon the size of the death worm. Prey items range from lizards and Fennec Foxes all the way up to villagers and camels when the worms are full grown. The bright red worms are feared by Mongolians and in the region, everyone knows someone who has encountered the terrifying creatures. This deadly cryptid has been entrenched in Mongolian folklore for centuries. Whether a mythical creature or not, the Mongolian Death Worm certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Inventor of Basketball Born

In the month of November, on the 6th, in 1861, James Naismith, the inventor of the game of basketball was born. He was a Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain and sports coach. Prior to inventing the now beloved game, Naismith studied and taught physical education at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He moved to Springfield, Massachusetts in 1890 and in 1891 he invented the game of basketball. His brainchild came about due to the need to keep athletes in good shape during winter weather where outdoor winter exercise was more difficult. In 1894, he wrote the first "Basket Ball" rule book (so spelled at the time). Naismith then moved from Massachusetts to Denver where he received his medical degree. Later, he moved on to the University of Kansas to become the Jayhawks athletic director and coach. Due to James Naismith's passion in physical education and his invention of the game of basketball, the sport was introduced at the Olympic Games of 1936 and according to the International Basketball Federation, over 450 million people worldwide take part in the sport today.

Historic Tampa Bay Hotel (Suggested by: Kathy and Gavin Thomas) 

The historic Tampa Bay Hotel is stunning and very different from its surroundings. Downtown Tampa Bay pierces the skyline with skyscrapers and other elements of the typical metropolis concrete jungle. The old hotel features Moorish and Turkish architecture. The minarets that grace several towers seem out of place on this coastal tourist destination. The hotel is now a part of a university campus and thus the interior has been altered greatly, but there is still enough of its past to call back to a bygone era of glitz and Victorian sensibilities. Including a few ghosts. Join us for the history and hauntings of the historic Tampa Bay Hotel!

Floridians know Plant City, Florida for its strawberries. The Strawberry Festival is held here for eleven days every February and March. A Native American village was once located here and it was  called Ichepucksassa, but by 1860 the name had changed to Cork in honor of the postmaster's hometown. When the South Florida Railroad arrived in 1884, the town was incorporated and renamed to Plant City for Henry B. Plant. Plant brought so much growth and success to the state of Florida that he was called the "King of Florida." This was probably much to the chagrin of Henry Flagler who was a rival and friendly competitor to Plant. That rivalry was to the benefit of the state as the men competed regularly to better each other when it came to building railroad lines and hotels.

Henry Plant was born on a Connecticut farm in October of 1819. He grew up in a Puritan family, mostly raised by his mother and step-father as he lost his father at the age of six to typhus fever. The disease also killed his sister. His first job was as a captain's boy on a steamboat and the ships he worked aboard traveled from New Haven to New York. One can imagine that seeing the big city after spending his early life on a farm really left an impression on him. Plant was really good at this shipping business and he worked his way up the ranks. He married Ellen Blackstone in 1842 and the couple would have two children, with only one surviving to adulthood.

In 1854, the family moved to Augusta, Georgia because Plant was elevated to management over the Adams Express Company's southern division. This meant he oversaw shipping between South Carolina and Georgia. The company was flourishing, but talk of war in 1861 made the company uncomfortable having a stake in the south. Henry proposed an option to the company. He told them he would gather investors and purchase the company and Adams Express agreed to sell. This was Plant's first of many companies that he would own. And while getting the company was great for Plant, his personal life took a hit when his wife Ellen died of tuberculosis shortly after the sell. Plant managed to keep the company prosperous through the Civil War and then he returned to New York.

Henry married Margaret Loughman in 1873 and he proceeded to get very involved with the railroad. He made investments here and there as he learned the ropes and in 1879 he purchased his first railroad and renamed it the Savannah, Florida & Western Railway. Plant continued buying lines and linking them and he worked his way down through Florida, reaching Central Florida in 1882. Here he formed the Plant Investment Company, known as PICO, and he brought on investors that included Henry Flagler. Flagler was also a board member of the company. By 1884, Plant had connected Tampa to the rest of the eastern seaboard, laying more than 1200 miles of tracks.

Clearly shipping was a big thing for Plant, but with that also came travel and tourism. So his next focus would be on not only making travel by steamboats and railway more luxurious, but he wanted to build grand hotels. Tampa seemed like a good place to focus his attention. Plant dug out the channel to create Port Tampa and made it a major transportation hub. This travel would include the Gulf and the Caribbean and Plant even got the mail contract for the West Indies. This network came to be known as the Plant System and was more successful than Flagler's efforts. Lumber, citrus, celery and phosphate industries flourished and Plany wooed to cigar industry to come to Tampa. Ybor City became its headquarters.

When it came to hotels, there was no stopping Plant. He built eight luxurious hotels in western Florida, rivaling Flagler's hotels on the east coast in places like St. Augustine. The first hotel he built was the Inn at Port Tampa in 1888. His finest and most opulent hotel would be the Tampa Bay Hotel. Before building the Tampa Bay Hotel, Plant needed some concessions from the city with the main one being a bridge. In order for the hotel to be linked to the downtown area, a bridge needed to be built across the Hillsborough River. The city agreed to build the bridge and Plant also managed to get them to agree to property taxes that would be under $200 a year. Construction began in 1888. The hotel would take two years to complete and cost $3 million including all the furnishings inside. The hotel was 1/4 mile long and covered 6 acres. Poured concrete was used and floors were reinforced with rails and cables.

Architect John A. Wood was hired by Plant to design and build the hotel. Wood began his career in New York. The design he came up with for the hotel is hard to peg down. The hotel is clearly Romantic architecture, which liked to blend older architectural styles like Gothic Revival. But its the presence of onion domes and minarets gave it a Moorish and Turkish feel as it reflected elements found on places like the Taj Mahal. The structure catches the eye as Kelly and I explain as we share about the first time we saw the hotel. The hotel has six minarets, four cupolas, and three domes. The hotel is graced with long verandas and the front entrance is really interesting because Victorian gingerbreading decorates the front. The western veranda opens up into the music room and grand parlor. Giant windows are how the veranda is connected and they were all open when we were there. The ceilings are domed and the music room has a small hardwood stage with balconies on each side. An orchestra regularly performed in here. Directly north of the main building was a dining room that could hold 650 people and it was considered the most elaborate room in the hotel. The room is ringed with carved mahogany balcony box seating and the ceiling is painted like a clouded sky. Eight course meals were served in the dining room. There was a billiards room, barbershop, beauty shop, shoeshine service, flower shop and all guest rooms had electricity and telephones and most had private bathrooms. There were 511 rooms when it opened in 1891. Florida's first passenger elevators were at the Tampa Bay Hotel. There were two of them and one still works today. 

The entire hotel, with its very long hallways, features Moorish archways in all openings. The interior was described as "a jewel casket into which has been gathered an infinite number of gems." There were Venetian mirrors, which still hang in the hallways and as Kathy pointed out, many dangerously face each other. At least dangerous in a hotel that is reputedly haunted because we know how those pesky mirrors can be portals and facing each other isn't great. The furnishings were as exotic as the exterior and sculptures were handpicked in Europe by the Plants. It always amazes us when we think about them shipping these things over from Europe.

The hotels vast grounds featured gardens and hosted croquet, tennis, shuffleboard and races. There was a golf course and the hotel offered diversions like fishing and wild game hunting. There were also carriages and bicycles for rent. Grand balls and concerts were hosted on the regular and tea parties crowded the vast verandas. The Tampa Bay Casino was also here and could seat 2,000 people for performances by John Philip Sousa and Sarah Bernhardt. The Casino had a spa and heated indoor swimming pool. The entire property boasted 21 buildings. It really must have been something to see and experience in its day.

During the Spanish-American War, the United States made plans to invade Cuba. Plant wanted Tampa to be utilized to carry this out and he sent his friend Franklin Q. Brown to Washington to show legislators how well Tampa would work as a port to launch the military campaign. This plan highlighted the Plant System, which was already running ships to and from Cuba and the port was linked to everywhere via the railroad. It really was a no-brainer and the Tampa Bay Hotel became the headquarters for the U.S. Army. Everyone connected to wars were brought here from war reporters to military officers to Red Cross personnel. Some of the military stationed here were Colonel Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders. The grounds were used for battle exercises and Teddy had one of the grand suites for his stay. The war was often referred to as the "Rocking Chair War" in Tampa because people could see all the officers sitting on the veranda in rocking chairs discussing strategy. The war lasted for 10 weeks.

Plant died in 1899. There is a really cool sculpture and fountain at the entrance to Plant Park. Margaret Plant commissioned the piece after her husband died and its called "Transportation." The design features trains and ships and an eagle holding a strongbox with The Southern Express Company's logo. This sculpture was crafted from solid stone by George Grey Barnard. The sculpture is the oldest public art in the city of Tampa. Plant's heirs sold the Tampa Bay Hotel to the city in 1905. The hotel ran through 1930 and hosted well known people like the Prince of Wales, the Queen, Winston Churchill, Clara Baton, Stephen Crane and Babe Ruth who hit his longest home run during a spirng training game at the adjacent Plant Field. He also signed his first baseball contract in the Grand Dining Room. The reason the hotel closed was that the Great depression hit it hard. The beautiful building just sat vacant for three years and then in 1933, the Tampa Bay Junior College moved in. Suites were turned into classrooms and laboratories. The junior college eventually became the University of Tampa. When the city signed the lease with the college in 1941, it designated that the southeast wing would be reserved as a museum. This became the Tampa Municipal Museum that is today the Henry B. Plant Museum. The entire building is known as Plant Hall. *Fun Fact: The first internationally recognized black fashion designer was Ann Lowe. She had a dressmaking salon in Tampa from 1915 to 1927. She crafted a number of formal dresses for things like the Gasparilla Court. They have three of her gowns at the museum.*

It's good that they opened the museum because the upper floors that we ventured to retained none of their historic value. Just industrial carpet and paint. We were at the hotel to take part in what was dubbed Eerie Eving at the Tampa Bay Hotel. There was period lighting and decor with displays featuring Victorian practices around death, including burial and seances, and there were stories featuring monsters, crime and we were even graced by the presence of Edgar Allen Poe. As we ventured from room to room, we got to see various artifacts from the hotel's past and we learned that the conductor of the orchestra was Giovanni Tallarico who emigrated from Calabria, Italy to the United States. You've probably never heard of him, but you have heard of his grandson, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. A prominent picture features Tallarico with his orchestra in 1909. The family is made of a long line of musicians as Steven's dad also became a conductor with his own orchestra and Tyler learned how to play the drums so he could play in that orchestra. 

Our friends and Executive Producers Kathy and Gavin Thomas joined us and so, of course, we brought a few pieces of handheld equipment to do a little investigating because we had heard the hotel was haunted. The most prominent ghost here belongs to Henry Plant. He has been nicknamed "The Brown Man." People see his full bodied apparition and describe him as tall with long white hair and mustache and red eyes. He is in a brown suit, hence the name. A student was once rushing to her class when she turned the corner into one of those long hallways and she saw a tall man in a period brown suit at the end of the hallway. He was a bit shadowy and she couldn't make out the face because of a shadow cast by a wide brimmed hat he was wearing. She quickly realized that this was a spirit because she noticed that he was floating several inches off the ground. He raised his head and she swore that his eyes were glowing red. Then he disappeared. When she got to class late, she decided to tell the truth as to why she was late and the professor actually said that this wasn't the first time he had heard this excuse. And he believed it, so he excused her.

That woman was lucky as many stories claim that the spirit rushes people when it is acknowledged. He disappears just before he makes contact. Another student was studying one evening in an empty classroom and he heard the door creak open. He expected to see someone come in, but nobody entered and then he heard disembodied footsteps approaching him. The sound stopped just before he was reached. The student gathered his books and left quickly. People who work in the building don't make eye contact if they see the spirit to avoid having him rushing them and they tell visitors to do the same.

Another spirit here is said to belong to an actress named Bessie. And boy, have we heard this story before a few dozen times at different locations. Apparently she was staying at the hotel and caught her husband cheating with one of her castmates. When Bessie got back to her room, she killed herself, although some accounts claim she hanged herself at the Falk Theater and yet another says she took a swan dive to her death off the top of the ballroom. Now her spirit lingers in rooms at Plant Hall and is sometimes heard screaming. She is the lady in red because she is seen wearing a scarlet dress. There are also urban legends about students who have died and haunt the place. Tim and Terry were fraternity brothers who lived on the fourth floor of the hall when it was a dorm. They died within two years of each other. Their spirits are blamed for putting the Greek letters of their fraternity on one of the doors that is the employee entrance to the financial aid office.

Kathy told us that she had felt weird in a far back room, so we headed there to see what we would feel. (Kathy Room) So I usually don't feel stuff, but I immediately went dizzy when I crossed the threshold. And Kathy is sensitive and she felt nauseous. Kelly felt pressure for sure. There are many artifacts that are personal to the Plant family. Kathy had a spirit box app opened on her phone and she was getting words like (Kathy Words - hiding, mummy, painful, damnation) One case had a lock of hair from Amy Plant and Kelly had her EMF outside the case and it kept pegging to yellow. Then we went down to a room with a bunch of instruments in it. Kelly's EMF went to yellow and stayed. We had an interesting interaction then. (Whats the Box)

We entered what had been a gentlemen's parlor and later became the writing and reading room and Edgar Allen Poe shared some information with us. (Edgar) Loved how the picture was a scandalously clad woman and she basically was wearing pants and a low cut shirt. We didn't get much other than the EMF pinging a few times and some of those interesting words, but we definitely would love a chance to do a real investigation in the place where we could break out all the equipment. So we couldn't say for sure that the place is haunted, but plenty of other people think so. Here are some more stories.

A student named Davis Owens said, "Late at night it’s eerie, like someone’s watching you, especially by the mailroom where that hallway narrows on the second floor." Another student named Patrick Tretola said, "When we were coming down from the fifth floor, we felt a push." Other students claim that the building gets unnaturally cold. Theater professor Michael Staczar claimed that he had a very weird encounter and shared, “This cloud of mist… fog, and it was obvious that there was some kind of physical shape to it. And as soon as I saw it, it literally sucked into the wall,” he told an online reporter. “It wasn’t a trick in the light. It was very obvious that it was some kind of shape, a physical shape. There was a presence there… a faint outline of a human body.”

Tour guides in the city share on ghost tours that a student was trying to turn in a paper late, so they figured they would slide it under the door of their professor's office, which was in Plant Hall. The student slid the paper under, stood up and turned around and there standing in the hall looking on with disapproval was Teddy Roosevelt. The student ran screaming. 2Stoned2Feel9 wrote on Reddit, "Plant Hall is extremely haunted. I was in a sorority and always hated being in Plant for recruitment because we had to be there late at night and weird stuff always happened. Doors slamming with no one around, footsteps when you know nobody is upstairs, that sort of thing. I don’t remember a lot of specifics because it was 5+ years ago now, but I know that place gives me the creeps after dark!"

L. Powell IV wrote on the Southern Spirit Guide website in 2018, "I received an anonymous comment telling a chilling story. This has been edited for clarity. Several years ago, my husband and I were vacationing and visiting my sister in Florida. On one afternoon we were looking for something to do and my sister suggested we check out the Plant Museum in Tampa. My husband knew I loved architecture and especially grand,old, buildings. I was very excited. We went in and began walking around. I could just imagine what it must have been like in its heyday. I saw the grand staircase and couldn’t help but walk up several flights ahead of my husband. Then I came to a strange hallway that seemed out of place and as I started walking down the hallway, I felt uncomfortable and I felt just a little bit cold (I thought probably because of all the windows). I felt I had gone to a part of the building that was off-limits to the public and decided to turn back. My husband was still on the first floor. As I headed toward the top of the stairway of the third-floor landing, I felt that there was a young girl in a long, white dress nearby. I think I sensed her on the way up too, but I thought I must have quite a vivid imagination and tossed it aside. Then I reached the top of the stairway and looked down the 3 flights and I heard a man whisper, 'Go ahead, why don’t you just jump?' I ignored it and heard it again. 'Why don’t you just jump?' This scared the hell out of me. The railing I was clutching now seemed so flimsy and low to my body that I could easily fall right over. I felt dizzy and very frightened. I held the railing deliberately and I kept my grip all the way down until I made my way back to my husband. I told him, 'I want to leave this place, now!' In the car, on the way back to my sister’s house, I explained what happened. This experience has stayed with me for years even though I have put it out of my mind. Recently I saw something on TV today that reminded me of it again. That’s when I decided to look up the history of the Plant Museum and found this web site with the two things I remembered most; the grand stairway and that cold corridor. Does anyone know if, in the history of the hotel, did a young girl, maybe 12-14 years old, fall to her death there? Or commit suicide?"

This hotel is simply magnificent for just the architecture alone, but one can image a time when officers sat on rocking chairs on the veranda or women gathered around tables for tea parties. In the distance, one might here the sounds of the racetrack or hear croquette balls being hit. The Gilded Age really enjoyed itself in Tampa and perhaps that is why spirits linger. Is the Tampa Bay Hotel haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 562 - Andrew Low House

Moment in Oddity - Crowley Lake Columns (Suggested by: Ruth Dempsey)

Crowley Lake Reservoir, located in the Eastern Sierras in California, was completed in 1941. Shortly thereafter, strange columns were discovered on the eastern shore of the lake. They are said to remind one of Moorish temples with the columns rising 20 feet in height and their tops forming arches. Various theories as to how the columns came to be have been pondered over the years. Geologists from U.C. Berkley analyzed the Crowley columns using several methods to try to solve the mystery. The composition of the columns were found to consist of minerals that are fairly impervious to erosion. The area is believed to have suffered an enormous volcanic eruption that was greater than 2,000 times that of Mount Saint Helens back in May of 1980. It is surmised that the eruption created the Long Valley Caldera which surrounds the reservoir. The Crowley Columns, however they were formed, are majestic and unique and they certainly are odd.

This Month in History - Founding of Mission San Juan Capistrano

In the month of November, on the 1st, in 1776, Junipero Serra founded Mission San Jaun Capistrano in Orange County, California. San Jaun Capistrano was the seventh mission established out of the twenty one built by the Spanish in California. The building of the mission initially began in October, 1775. However, due to a Kumeyaay [KOO-Me-Eye] warparty attacking Mission San Diego, the soldiers at San Jaun Capistrano were ordered back to San Diego and the priests had to go with them. The purpose of the Spanish missions in California was to expand the territories of Spain as well as to spread Christianity to the indigenous Acjachemen (Ah-HAWSH-eh-men) of the area. The Spanish brought new ideas, technology, beasts of burden and livestock who multiplied and devastated the indigenous plants and animals of the California region. The Spanish also unintentionally brought diseases that were uncommon to the native people causing widespread outbreaks of pneumonia, tuberculosis, measles and syphilis. With the arrival of the Spanish, the indigenous people were forced to find new food sources and they were offered the option of joining the missions. To do so meant changing everything about their lives. They were required to change their culture, language, religion, clothing, food, and the list goes on. From 1770 to 1830, it is said that the native population declined by 74% due to these factors. The mission had begun its downswing in 1812 and in 1845, the Governor of Alta California, Pio Pico, sold Mission San Jaun Capistrano to John Forster who was the Governor's brother in law. The mission became a private ranch for the Forster family for the next 20 years. In 1850, California officially became a state and Catholic bishop, Joseph Alemany, petitioned to have all the missions returned to the Catholic Church. Today, Mission San Jaun Capistrano serves as a museum and the Serra Chapel inside of the property is used by the mission parish.

Andrew Low House (Suggested by: Bailey Landrum)

The Andrew Low House is located in Savannah, Georgia and is a beautifully restored 19th century home that sits in the heart of Savannah's historic district. A sculpted and well-cared-for garden leads guests to a door that opens in to a part of the history of a Scottish immigrant, Andrew Low, who left his mark on the city and also the woman who founded the Girl Scouts, his daughter-in-law Juliette Gordon Low. Now in the afterlife, it seems that both of these individuals are still connected to the house. On this episode, we are joined by our friends Bailey and Lizzie, who are not only tour guides in Savannah, but they've had their own paranormal experiences in the Andrew Low House.

Here is the transcript of our conversation:

Diane Student: Kelly, Bailey and Lizzie joined us on our Dixie House investigation, and they are joining us on this episode. They're tour guides in Savannah, Georgia, and they also host the podcast Knowmore, which is spelled KNOW. MORE. How are you 2 ladies doing.

Bailey Landrum: Good! How are you? We've been waiting for this.

Diane Student: Yeah, What the listeners don't know is that we had it scheduled once, and then we had Hurricane Helene and so we had to cancel, and then we scheduled it again, and then we had Hurricane Milton and had to cancel again.

Bailey Landrum: It's been both of us. Yeah.

Diane Student: Yeah, so it was kind of like crossing our fingers. Do we dare set another date, or are we gonna have another hurricane.

Bailey Landrum: It was. It was just luck of the draw.

Diane Student: Yeah, I'll say so. Both of you have been tour guides in Savannah, Georgia, Bailey. How long have you been doing that for.

Bailey Landrum: Since I moved down here. So about 3 years it was the 1st job I had, and I tried quitting it. I worked at a hardware store, but it just kept calling me back.

Diane Student: Nice. Love it. Very good at storytelling.

Bailey Landrum: Thank you.

Diane Student: And how about you, Lizzie? How long have you been doing? Tour guiding.

Bailey Landrum: Ghost. Thank you. You're welcome. I was about to complicate it, but it's okay. Now, when she feels all the hair on the back of her neck stand up as if someone was standing very close to her. But before Vanessa could turn around the group of guests, all just gasped and screamed. She turns around. Nothing!

Diane Student: Wow!

Bailey Landrum: Not the 1st time her group has done that to her, not just inside the house but Vanessa also used to work for our other trolley tour and the second stop was like the Colonial Park cemetery and she would tell the story about like a Mr. Baker story, and he's a guy he got beaten up in the cemetery. Yeah, and he haunts the cemetery. But there was one time she was telling that story, and sure enough, Mr. Baker just showed up behind her, and no one said anything. They just went like I don't know.

Diane Student: Good.

Bailey Landrum: The one getting sacrificed to the ghost, for no reason.

Diane Student: I've heard that story so many times from Tour guides when they're like, Yeah, I was telling the story. And then all of a sudden I noticed that my tour group, like their faces, all went, and I was like, I don't want to turn around and see what's behind me.

Bailey Landrum: Yeah, but that was the last story. But, as you can tell, the Andrew load is not a simple like, it's not a simple. Oh, there's kids walking to the walls, the dolls talk. It's something different for every person. And I think that's what kind of makes it so new, unique. And that's what this was such a fun episode to do, because it was a personal. It has my 1st ghost experience, and also some of Lizzie's. But it just holds a deep with the spiritual so friendly. You just hold a deep part in your heart.

Diane Student: Yeah. And there's so many different ones there that are manifest in different ways, different ways.

Bailey Landrum: Oh, yeah, something we don't even know about.

Diane Student: We need to get there. We need to get inside that now. Do they ever let people investigate there or.

Bailey Landrum: Unfortunately not. No, they're the Colonial dames are very very amazing women, but they have certain rules they have to follow for their society and whatnot, and also keep. Keep the museum up and running, and also keep the Feng Shui of it all. Yeah, but.

Diane Student: That's true. You don't wanna bring stuff in. That's not all. There.

Bailey Landrum: Yeah. And people have, and the house is not like it. No.

Diane Student: Gotcha.

Bailey Landrum: It's like, literally, there's times where, you know. Sometimes people have a ghost that follows them. And sometimes that goes. Man, this is nice. I think I want to stay here, and you can just feel the disturbance of the fort.

Diane Student: Across, the.

Bailey Landrum: Yeah. And I just know it's either Mary Mosiana or Mr. Miller going. No, you get out of here.

Diane Student: Out kind of like that. Get off my lawn. Speaking of the outdoors, I just saw that other picture Bailey that you sent that's taken the garden, but taken like from the front steps.

Bailey Landrum: Beautiful.

Diane Student: Down gorgeous. Not anything that I was able to appreciate. From the outer gate sidewalk area.

Bailey Landrum: That was one of the last photos I took of the house when I was touring there, and I'm like, I never get to see this, I'm going to take advantage of it.

Diane Student: Yeah, yeah, I love it.

Bailey Landrum: So much. And just to think that Juliet, like she sat up the stairs and probably set set on those steps and just enjoyed the view. It just kind of has a nice, like peaceful vibe to it.

Diane Student: Definitely, and you could see the lions there at the bottom of the stairs, too, just.

Bailey Landrum: Yeah.

Diane Student: Me. This is very cool.

Bailey Landrum: I heard a story. I don't know how true it is, but I want to believe it because it's cute. She, Juliet, we used to pet the lion's manes, but now we have sad faces on it, because she's not there anymore.

Diane Student: Oh!

Bailey Landrum: Yeah, but I don't know how true that is, but it sounds like something Juliet would do. She loved animals.

Diane Student: All right, Lizzie, you need to go pet their manes. Oh.

Bailey Landrum: Alright! Let's just go ahead and break the rules.

Diane Student: Inspired. What happened? It's like all smooth in this one area.

Bailey Landrum: No, actually, I actually technically had a breaker rule, but it was for the greater good. I had.

Diane Student: Now you are admitting this.

Bailey Landrum: Yeah, be careful.

Diane Student: On a recording.

Bailey Landrum: But also it's already documented. So it's it's fine. I had this one guest on my trolley, who
very much spirited, if I shall say. And he was like, I'm not feeling well inside the house doing. Do you mind? I stand out in the courtyard. I'm like, Yeah, that's fine. Just stay out there. Get some, you know. Fresh air, whatever. and next thing I know, I look out the window of the towards the garden. and there's just a man standing in the middle of it. I like in the front yard. Yeah, in the front yard. I'm like. Oh, my God! It's the guys run outside around the building, because, of course, I couldn't go through the front doors. and I've had to scold this man going. Please get out of here. He's like, well, it's so beautiful like it. There's no lights out. If you fall. That's on me.

Diane Student: Yeah. And when you said he was spirited I thought that maybe he consumed some spirits, and I thought you were gonna say, a whole nother thing.

Bailey Landrum: Oh, yeah, he wants feel of those kind of spirits. Yes. But yeah, it was just like a.

Diane Student: Okay.

Bailey Landrum: Thank you very much.

Diane Student: Doing to that beautiful garden.

Bailey Landrum: He's a happy, he's a happy spirit. He was very much the oh, yes. guarded. Yeah. Just taking in the whips like he did. He was like smelling the flowers. I'm like as much as I appreciate. You're not destroying this. You need to leave.

Diane Student: At least he didn't lose his spirits in that beautiful car. because that's where my head went.

Bailey Landrum: Yeah.

Diane Student: What a fabulous place! Thank you so much for sharing it with us. Thank you.

Bailey Landrum: And thank you for the museum. Of course, too.

Diane Student: Yes, absolutely. And I think it's great that even though they don't have people who investigate there that they're, you know, not like. Don't mention that we have some ghosts here, because some places, you know, are real worried about getting that word out right.

Bailey Landrum: There are some places like that in Savannah. It's like you're. I know you're haunted just the ground the way you look is haunted, but they're like, Nope, we're perfectly fine here. No spirits. It's like. It's okay.

Diane Student: And it helps with tourism. Really.

Bailey Landrum: It does. Yeah.

Bailey Landrum: Well, it's not for everybody pretty much. Yeah.

Diane Student: Wears, yeah, yeah.

Bailey Landrum: We're like New Orleans. Yeah.

Diane Student: Exactly. I mean, you just walk into the city, and you could just feel it.

Bailey Landrum: Yeah.

Diane Student: Alright. Well, thank you so much for joining us, and we look forward to hooking up with you guys again in the future we'd love to do some investigating again.

Bailey Landrum: I know some places here in Savannah that's really fun to investigate. So if y'all ever come this way, we can do it.

Diane Student: Very cool. Sounds good.

The Andrew Low House is beautiful and has some very cool items inside. Could there be some ghosts inside as well? Is the Andrew Low House haunted? That is for you to decide!